Stuck in the Mud

Hi,
We are stuck on a site and the owner has said his small tractor will not help us out but he knows a local farmer who might help. However he is concerned that there does not seem to be a tow hook to attach a tow rope.
We have a 2016 Broadway on a Peageot base and I wonder if anyone can give me a clue to where one can attach a tow, there really does not appear to be anything although there is a small square panel about 2" sq and I wondered if that comes off to give access to something substantial to fix a rope.
Any suggestions gratefully received as we were due to leave on Thursday morning.
Thanks in anticipation.
John.

Your towing eye is under the passenger seat and yes that small 2 inch square should reveal your towing point

Yes that square comes off, tow hitch is in box under passenger seat with jack etc, there was another post about this a couple,e of days ago on the form,mpossibly in van conversions section

There may well be a place to attach a rope under the passenger side wheel arch. See pic, it's there on a few vans, not sure of Peugeot, but worth looking.  

Only use the towing eye to tow the van, do not attempt to attach under the bumper as you may find that you damage the bumper when the tow rope tightens up,

Remove the square cover to reveal the threaded hole where the towing eye screws into, make sure the eye is screwed in fully and tight using if necessary the small bar in the the tool box that contains the jack and accessories under the front passenger seat

You could always wrap the rope around the wipers if all else fails.....  incoming

I remember going on a rally once and needed 2 Range Rover to pull us in, never did another. 
Good luck. 
Rich..

Wow, what an amazing and helpful group this is. Thank you all so much for taking the time and trouble to advise, I really appreciate your effort. 
I have discovered the eye and I should be well prepared for a tow out in the morning - lesson learned, avoid grass sites!!!
Sincere thanks again.
Kind regards,
John.

Hi John we have all been there just  buy two good mats for the front wheels and run on them when you arrive on site

We are on a grass site (no hardstandings) and on arrival the farmer told us that 14 vans had just left with no problems.  We went out this morning and hadn't realised one wheel had sunk and I spun the wheel.  Got the grip mats out and then straight off. On return we've moved away from edge of field and put the grip mats under the wheels ready for tomorrow's exit. Despite what farmer said I've discovered several troughs from wheels. (There must be another word for them).

Thanks again for the hint of "mats", are these specific mats made for this purpose or do you mean ordinary house mats - sorry if that is a rather naieve question

john clemence wrote:Thanks again for the hint of "mats", are these specific mats made for this purpose or do you mean ordinary house mats - sorry if that is a rather naieve question

Put 'motorhome grip mats' into ebay or Google and you'll get a variety of styles. Mine are the simple yellow ones.

They are purpose made I expect Paul might give you a good make

The mats spread the load of the wheel and stop it sinking into the ground, I use four of them when the ground is soft but you will probably get away with just having them under the driven wheels. Use the mats as soon as you pitch.

If wet conditions persist after you pitch the ground may get softer and wheels sink in as soon as you drive off the mats so get your driving wheels as near to hard ground as possible.

We have used a set of these for years and always place them under the front (driving) wheels whenever we arrive on grass or sandy pitches. They stop you sinking in and also give you a good start to get you moving off the pitch. They can also be used with the Fiamma Level-Up ramps, on hardstanding they will also help stop the ramps shooting out:

https://motorhomeessentials.com/product/monster-mat/

With our Kemerton XL we always seem to need to use levelling ramps on the front wheels so rather than drive on I have always reversed onto these, them if the grass is wet / soft when we leave I drive off & keep going (steering slightly left / right so rear wheels miss ramps) until we hit hard ground, then walk back & retrieve ramps. Works for me most times.

The detachable towing eye is most useful piece of kit

Only last Friday I had to be towed out of a CL Golden Valley Nr Thornbury Bristol 

Smashing CL by the way 

Terry

Some useful ideas here about how to use mats etc.  Wish I had read this before we got stuck at Easter at C&CC rally at Patching, we do carry two sets of mats but didn't try deploying until we found we were stuck.  Thought that the tyres would grip the edge and draw the wheels on to them.  A bit naïve of me and lesson learnt!

Thanks all for the advice.

We also use the monster matts having found the yellow Fiamma equivalents useless.  Before I had my levelling jacks fitted I tried to park the drive wheels on the matts and the non-drive wheels on small wooden boards so that the wheels didn't sink into the ground and form cups that are difficult to get out of.  I now find that the levelling jacks with pads to spread the load help stop the wheels from sinking into the ground and before departure I can raise the drive wheels to put the monster matts under them.  I also take a tow rope with me to use with the towing eye. In the winter months we only use hardstanding.  When I change my tyres I will upgrade from summer to 4-season which should help.  It also helps to reduce the load over the un-driven axle and increase the load over the driven axle.  This particularly applies to FWD coachbuilts with long rear overhangs which are inevitably rear heavy and front light and is why their off-road capability is poor.

we just use a RWD van 

RWD can be a lot better on any loaded van, especially if you have long overhangs, but it is a matter of what you can get. I would have liked to have converted a 4x4 Crafter but the weights just get too high if you prefer to keep under 3500 kgs. In my case not just the extra unladen weight of the Crafter, and the 4x4 running gear, but also compounded by a separate issue that if I convert myself I will tend to build it too heavy. I am used to working on barges where weight is simply not an issue. For the moment I will be looking at better tyres before next winter. I had identified what seemed to be a good converter of Crafter vans before I bought the present Kingham but unfortunately they ceased trading. I also decided that it might be wise to buy a van and try it before trying to design one myself!

I've had three rwd Auto-sleepers for a total of eighteen years between them; to the extent that they needed to be pulled out: first was stuck twice (Duetto), second once (Wilton) and third twice (Malvern). If a wheel sinks into the ground it doesn't come out any easier if its on the back than if it was on the front. Over that time I've had the same yellow Fiamma grip mats and would have been stuck many many more times if they had not been deployed.

Whatever happened to the legendry cut out bottoms of bread baskets ??

I think bakers found them getting too expensive to throw away.  I haven't seen any used with a van for many years.

I kept the mounting adaptors for Spikes Spider Snow Chains fitted to each of our vans for many years. Only ever used them twice to get out of deep mud - not the easiest things to clean afterwards! Now added to the pile of gadgets no longer used and sitting on a shelf in the garage. Changed to fitting M&S (mud & snow) tyres a few years ago and have only got stuck once since, mainly due to an unseen kerbstone edging on a pitch. 

If anyone can make use of them, make me an offer. They'd need to be collected from Berkshire.

https://tinyurl.com/2aw8mrzz

I think site owners have a responsibility in this respect.  If they only offer grass pitches they really out to provide a pile of large heavy duty grip matts.  I was on the CAMC all grass Plymouth Sound site a couple of weeks ago and that's exactly what they did and the attentive warden made sure they were used.